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US 7,232,498 B2Granted
Tire with raised indicia
AssigneeThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
InventorsRene Jean Zimmer, Claude Ernest Felix Boes, Rene Francois Reuter, Hans-Bernd Fuchs, Wolfgang Albert Lauer, David John Zanzig
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Abstract
The present invention provides a pneumatic tire comprising raised indicia on a sidewall of the tire, the raised indicia comprising a plurality of superposed layers of a curable elastomer composition.
Claims11
A method of applying raised indicia to a sidewall surface of a pneumatic tire, said raised indicia having a raised thickness measured normal to said sidewall surface and an indicial cross-section substantially perpendicular to said normal, comprising the steps of:
- preparing said sidewall surface of said tire to accept said raised indicia;
- applying in a sequence of application steps each of a plurality of superposed layers of a curable elastomer composition to said prepared sidewall surface to form said raised indicia, each of said layers having a cross-section substantially similar to said indicial cross-section;
- wherein said sequence of application steps comprises:
- i) applying a first layer of said curable elastomer composition to said prepared sidewall surface;
- ii) applying an additional layer of said curable elastomer after applying the first layer, the additional layer superposing said first layer;
- and
- iii) applying at least one further additional layer after application of the previous layer such that each additional layer is superposed on the previously applied layer, until a predetermined raised thickness is obtained;
- and
- curing the curable elastomer composition by application of heat or electromagnetic radiation;
- wherein said step of applying a plurality of superposed layers of a curable elastomer composition comprises applying each of said layers of said curable elastomer composition from a plurality of inkjet nozzles.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.